Travel Thread II: Wish You Were Here

[batmom]

I freaking love the south of France. Avignon, St Remy en Provence, Carcasonne. The whole area is just so beautiful. Sigh

[seat6]

Sept 8, 2021 12:43:59 GMT -4 lordofthefries said:

Sept 8, 2021 12:39:29 GMT -4 seat6 said:

I have visited Toulouse and enjoyed it. It's nickname is the Rose City because of all the pink brick. It's a foodie destination, if that's something you are interested in. There is an interesting cathedral that is two different styles that are stuck together. The municipal building is open for free and there cool murals. There is also a museum devoted to the Roman occupation of Gaul. I think it would be a nice place as a base for shorter day trips.

Friend's partner is in Toulouse so that would be perfect! I've very excited to be traveling in France with actual French people - I think this will be a lot more fun than my prior more touristy vacations. Any particular restaurants you'd suggest?

I didn’t eat in any restaurants because I was with friends the entire time. One of my co-workers who is a real foodie went after I did and she found some places that specialized in regional cooking. It’s the Languedoc (now Occitanie) region, so it’s known for pork, duck, and seafood, and herbs like thyme and rosemary. Cassoulet is also very popular.

I went to the Musee des Augustins and enjoyed that.

[Deleted]

Aug 19, 2021 20:22:01 GMT -4 @fitz said:

I’ve just booked myself a not far awaycation for my 50th birthday just me, it’s my birthday and I’ll birthday as I want too, I’m hoping to paddle in the sea, eats big bowl of mussels or fish n chips and down a pint of Guinness with the seaside close by, as it’s booked it will be pissing rain that weekend for sure but I don’t care
Its my I’m older today, I’m not cooking for me or pouring my drinks or waking up in my own bed moment!
Wexford seasides seeya in a couple of weeks!

It is also going to be my first covid world mini adventure so everything crossed stuff stays open regardless of rising cases/ I don’t get the damn lurgy thus needing to isolate at home/life laughing at me planning shit!

Jinxed!

Wexford seasides will have to wait, Covid didn’t get me but my tantrum throwing car did, a fucked up fan belt/ alternator issue had me panic cancel this trip for now...

Also an Aunt had booked something else same day for bday so I’d have had change plans anyway so I’ll still have a night away from home and foods feed to me that Ive got nothing to do with. Just closer to home and no seasides involved!

[Ripley]

Has anybody spent any time in Gulfport, Mississippi? TTMR and I are planning a trip there during the first week in April. We wanted beaches and I didn't want to go to Florida. I know that New Orleans is only about 90 minutes away, so we'll go there one day. But is there any restaurant we shouldn't miss or attraction we have to see?

[lizziebeth730]

We just got back from Disney World. The plane situation was TERRIBLE. Disney World in and of itself was an 8 out of 10 experience wise.

Our flight to Orlando was fine- no issues. We land, grab our luggage and head to the Polynesian to drop off everything at the bell hop and head to Disney Springs to do a little shopping and kill some time. Our hotel room was supposed to be ready at 3. So we head back at 330 and it's still not ready so we ended up with an upgrade- ground floor with castle and water view. OK fantastic. Get into the room- my suitcase has been significantly damaged... like crushed and bent. We head over to Fort Wildnerness for our dinner reservation at Trails End. Food was excellent. About halfway through the skies OPEN UP. So we eat slowly hoping to ride out the thunderstorm. As we get ready to leave, we ask if the boats are running (we had to go from the Polynesian by monorail to Magic Kingdom and then catch the ferry boat to Wildnerness so we had to go that route back). They say "when there's thunderstorms, the boats don't run, but the bus stop is right up there" and point us in that direction. So we hop on the bus and Magic Kingdom is EMPTYING out. We were trying to figure out where to go, and were told that the monorails weren't running either. So we end up... on a ferry ( I thought the boats don't run?) and as we're waiting on that boat we're watching the monorails go.

Day 2 was Epcot which was beautiful. We tried to get an individual lightening lane for Remy's Adventure but couldn't. The app just spun endlessly. Wo we bummed around and then headed back to the hotel for some pool time. We then went back to Epcot that evening and the skies opened AGAIN. We were soaked to the bone but we waited in the standby line for Remy. It was a great ride!

Day 2 was Magic Kingdom, it was mostly fine. My daughter got to ride her first big coasters Space Mountain and Big Thunder. We tried again for the individual lightening lane for Mine Train and the app just spun again ARGH. But overall it was a good day.

Day 3 was Hollywood Studios. We rope dropped in hopes of getting onto Rise of Resistance. At open the ride was closed. And it was already a 90 min wait. We decided to give it a whirl and just wait a bit hoping that once it opened it would move right along. After 30 min I started frantically trying to use the app to buy the lightening lane for the ride.... FINALLY SUCCESS! We had a 1245 time slot. So we did Toy Story land and some other rides and then headed back to Rise. It had only opened about 20 min before our slot. As a result they were ONLY allowing the lightening lane people in the ride so it was still a 45 min wait ( but it was worth the 60 bucks and the wait). Then we just kinda motored through the rest of the park and the only ride there we wanted to do but couldn't was Tower of Terror. The kids built droids and then we attempted to do Oga's Cantina, but couldn't due to timing. Oh well, gives us a reason to go back right?

So Friday was Animal Kingdom and we rope dropped that too. They funneled all of us straight to Pandora and we got to ride Flights of Passage which we couldn't do last time. AMAZING. We did a few more rides and then decided to swing back over to Disney Springs to kill some time again and then head to the pool before our dinner reservations at Ohana. While we were at Disney Springs we get an email that there's an issue with the flights home the next day. So now I'm frantically trying to get in touch with JetBlue. They finally responded and we've been rebooked to Wednesday to Providence instead of Saturday to Boston. I kinda flip out and they somehow managed to find a flight for us on Sunday to Boston ( why they didn't just do that to begin with is beyond me). So now we have to figure everything else out. Polynesian is fully booked and there's no place for us to stay on property for one night. So now my husband is scrambling to find a hotel somewhere in Orlando. I'm trying to sort out the airport transport and no one is answering. MY husband finds a homewood suites at the airport and just books it. We decide to eat the cost of the transport because we're completely screwed by it. So we spend Saturday bumming around at the hotel and going to the pool and Trader Sams. Get an Uber to the other hotel and just chill there.

We get up on Sunday and grab breakfast. Then we get an alert. Our 11 AM flight is now 1 PM. Fine. We head over to the airport an hour later than originally planned figuring that we'd get some lunch and chill out. 15 minutes before boarding... another alert.. delayed til 345. We finally get onto that plane and land. And then we sat in the plane for 45 minutes.. so you've got a bunch of cranky passengers who were supposed to be home 6 hours ago and we're stuck on the plane with no air flow. Finally they let us out and it took 90 min for them to do luggage. So we didn't get home til nearly 9 PM when we should have been home nearly 36 hours earlier.

My husband called JetBlue about the luggage and they basically were like "sorry nothin we can do" and disconnected.

But overall the trip was great, I'll probably test positive for COVID tomorrow but whatever.

[tanyak]

I just want to complain about hotels. lol

Lil Mr. Tanyak had a two-day basketball tournament this weekend. It was only about a hour and 20 minutes away, but I just knew he would have one of the last games on Saturday and then an 8 a.m. or 9 a.m. game Sunday morning. The Sunday game ended up being at 2, but if I hadn't book a room, it would have been at 8.

I figured it would be easy to find a room at a mid-level brand for about $100 to $150 a night. I don't need fancy, but I don't stay at motels or super-cheap places either. But every middle level place (Hampton Inn and similar) was $200 a night before the ridiculous taxes. I couldn't believe it! So I held my breath and started booking and then I got hit with the next surprise. At nearly every place I've ever stayed, it was standard to have free cancellation up until the day you check in. Some places allowed cancellation even on the day of check-in. Now, most places (at least in that area) are charging more if you want that flexibility. It's like a hotel's version of a luggage fee.

The last thing is room cleaning is no longer offered unless requested by a certain time. (At least at this Hampton Inn.) I guess this has been in affect since COVID. We're not big on room cleaning. If we are on vacation for five or six nights, we might have them come twice. But that's still a function of us declining as opposed to having to request it, if that makes sense. Seems like some of the hotel rate should cover automatic housecleaning without folks having to ask for. I'm sure that's about to become part of the new normal.

I need to book rooms for a couple of more tournaments plus the night before we leave on our cruise in June, and this part of the process -- which used to be so EASY -- now makes me want to pull my hair out!

[lizziebeth730]

Apr 14, 2022 16:18:59 GMT -4 tanyak said:

I just want to complain about hotels. lol

Lil Mr. Tanyak had a two-day basketball tournament this weekend. It was only about a hour and 20 minutes away, but I just knew he would have one of the last games on Saturday and then an 8 a.m. or 9 a.m. game Sunday morning. The Sunday game ended up being at 2, but if I hadn't book a room, it would have been at 8.

I figured it would be easy to find a room at a mid-level brand for about $100 to $150 a night. I don't need fancy, but I don't stay at motels or super-cheap places either. But every middle level place (Hampton Inn and similar) was $200 a night before the ridiculous taxes. I couldn't believe it! So I held my breath and started booking and then I got hit with the next surprise. At nearly every place I've ever stayed, it was standard to have free cancellation up until the day you check in. Some places allowed cancellation even on the day of check-in. Now, most places (at least in that area) are charging more if you want that flexibility. It's like a hotel's version of a luggage fee.

The last thing is room cleaning is no longer offered unless requested by a certain time. (At least at this Hampton Inn.) I guess this has been in affect since COVID. We're not big on room cleaning. If we are on vacation for five or six nights, we might have them come twice. But that's still a function of us declining as opposed to having to request it, if that makes sense. Seems like some of the hotel rate should cover automatic housecleaning without folks having to ask for. I'm sure that's about to become part of the new normal.

I need to book rooms for a couple of more tournaments plus the night before we leave on our cruise in June, and this part of the process -- which used to be so EASY -- now makes me want to pull my hair out!

Daily cleaning has gone the way of the dodo bird. In general I'm ok with it, and I don't necessarily need fresh sheets every day, hell, I don't even need a fresh set of towels every day, but DUDE TAKE OUT THE TRASH. You only give us like desk sized trash cans!

[tanyak]

Yes! Those little oval trash bins are so small and hold nothing! If this is the new standard, they really should swap out those cans for something that can hold more than two hours' worth of trash.

I don't care much about new sheets, either, but your girl does like fresh towels. lol

Last night I booked a Hampton Inn that's about 1 mile away from the port that we cruise out of in Cape Canaveral. It's $300 for the night, which is STUPID. But the hotel is not quite two years old and has great reviews on Trip Advisor. We'll be driving 10 hours that day from North Carolina, so it will be nice to arrive someplace that's comfy and decent.

[mojogirl]

Yep, Hampton Inn is our go-to as well, the free breakfast was great when we had 3 teenagers, even at a Denny's you're looking at almost $100 for breakfast for 5 when kids want OJ!

Good to know, I haven't travelled since pre-COVID and we're staying in one for my daughter's college grad next month. We booked it months ago but it was expensive because they knew it was grad weekend, lol.

[granolamom]

Have any US citizens tried completing ArriveCAN forms? They are supposed to make entry to Canada easier because you upload your passport and vaccination info before traveling. But the site just hangs when I try to submit a photo of my vaccine card. Erg.

We have traveled a couple of times during Covid to look at colleges with granolakid2. I take the plastic laundry bag from the hotel closet, fill it with our trash, and leave it in the bin in the lobby or the parking lot. And bring an extra plastic bag or two for longer stays.

ETA: Got the mobile version of ArriveCAN to work! Off to visit the University of Toronto soon!